Andy Warhol on Compact Disc – Art & Portraits

The compact disc (CD) was developed jointly by by Philips and SONY and introduced in 1982, five years before Andy Warhol’s death in February 1987 following a gallbladder operation. As far as I can ascertain the only CD that used Warhol’s art that was released during his lifetime is the 1986 Aretha Franklin album “Aretha“. I have twenty-two of the 33 catalogued CDs in my collection that have cover art or portraits by/of Andy Warhol. The table lists all these that I have found.

CDs with Andy Warhol Art 1986-2009.

The compact discs:

Aretha Franklin‘s “Aretha” album released in 1986, was simultaneously released on LP, cassette and CD. Many older albums with Warhol art were later re-issued on CD. But I have not included re-issues in this list – thus no Velvet Underground & Nico or any of the Blue Note albums with Warhol art.

in 1988 Tobias Picker’s “Keys to the City” coupled with Marc Blitzstein’s “Piano Concerto”, was first released, on the CRI label. The booklet featured Warhol’s “Brooklyn Bridge” poster design on the cover (left). Warhol had created this print to celebrate the Bridge’s centenary in 1983. The CD was was re-issued in the 1990s with a modified cover (right).

Picker/Blitzstein: The original CD release (left) and the re-issue cover (right)

In 1990 John Cale and Lou Reed released “Songs for Drella”, their tribute to Andy Warhol. “Drella” was Warhol superstar Ondine’s nickname for Warhol – a contraction of Dracula and Cinderella – used by people at The Factory but apparently not appreciated by Warhol himself. The “self portrait” on the cover was taken by Billy Name. There was also a limited edition CD in a velvety Digipak version that only had the album title of the front cover together with Cale’s and Reed’s names.

“Songs for Drella” CD with a Warhol self-portrait visible behind Lou Reed and John Cale.

Russell Means, a famous native American activist, released “Electric Warrior” in 1993. The portrait on the booklet was taken from Warhol’s “The American Indian” series, originally published in 1976. Other portraits of Means from the series can be seen at http://www.skarstedt.com/exhibitions/2012-10-10_andy-warhol/.

Russell Means’ “Electric Warrior” CD with Warhol’s 1976 portrait.

The Warhol Museum opened the following year and a book and CD were published to commemorate its inauguration. The CD of Andy Warhol interviews “Warhol From Tapes” had a detail from “Flowers” printed on the CD. The book had the compact disc attached to the front cover, but there are also CDs in standard jewel cases.

The Warhol Museums 1994 inaugural book with CD.

In 1972, Paul Anka had commissioned Warhol to paint a series of portraits of him. Warhol delivered these in person to Anka, who was, at that time, appearing in Las Vegas. Anka used two of the portraits on his 1976 LP “The Painter” and in 1996 released a compact disc album of duets entitled “Amigos”. This was a Spanish language release with Anka duetting with such artists as Ricky Martin, Julio Iglesias and others, including his daughter Anthea Anka. Two compact disc singles were released from this album; a promotional single of “Diana” featuring Paul Anka and Ricky Martin and a standard CD single of “Yo te amo”, which Anka sings together with Anthea.

Paul Anka “Amigos” (left), “Diana” (middle) and “Yo te amo” (right).

The soundtrack to the film “I Shot Andy Warhol”, released in 1996, starred Lili Taylor, Stephen Dorff and Jared Harris. The soundtrack was a compilation of various artists tracks.The choice of artists on this CD was eclectic. There was a track from The Lovin’ Spoonful, and others from R.E.M., Luna, The MC5 (“Kick Out the Jams” – one of my favourites), Love and a specially composed “I Shot Andy Warhol Suite” by John Cale.

The soundtrack album “I Shot Andy Warhol”.

The next classical CD, released the same year as “I Shot Andy Warhol”, was a promotional double CD entitled “Concert of Concerts, Opus 2″ released by NTT Data in Japan of works by Mozart and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. The cover and the discs themselves all featured a drawing from Warhol’s sketches from his portfolio “Play Book for S Bruce from 2:30 to 4:00″ given to Stephen Bruce joint owner of New York’s Serendipity 3 restaurant.

NTT-Data “Concert of Concerts, Opus 2″ CD cover.

In 1997, Catalyst records released “Music for Merce” by The EOS Ensemble, conducted by Jonathan Sheffer, that used Warhol’s photographs of dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham on the booklet.

“Music for Merce” the 1997 CD.

The next classical CD to appear was Karl-Aage Rasmussen’s 1998 “Three Friends”, which featured a detail from Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Annunciation” from Warhol’s “Details of Renaissance Paintings” prints from 1984. Another detail from another print from this series would appear on a CD cover in 2006.

The band Hopewell released its first album entitled “Contact” in 1998 with a cover picture of the Empire State Building from Warhol’s 1964 film of the building. The silent film lasts 8 hours and 5 minutes and was shot from the 41st floor of the Rockefeller Center.

Hopewell’s first album “Contact” used a still from Warhol’s film “The Empire State Building”.

John Cale released “Eat/Kiss –

John Cale’s “Eat/Kiss – Music From the Films of Andy Warhol” featuring a still from “Kiss”.

Music From the Films of Andy Warhol” in 1999, which features a still from Warhol’s film “Kiss” on the booklet’s cover.

In 2000, the Museum of Modern Art released a CD entitled “Open Ends – Musical Exploration in New York 1966-2000″. This is a compilation of various artists including The Velvet Underground, Yoko Ono, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo and The Fugs. The cover showed four colour variations of Warhol’s self portrait from 1966 – a work that resides in the Museum of Modern Art.

The booklet from “Open Ends: Musical Exploration in New York 1960-2000″. Released by the Museum of Modern Art.

A rather strange compact disc entitled “Andy Warhol – Amerykansi Mit” appeared in Poland in 2002. This is a twelve track CD with the majority of tracks by members of The Velvet underground, but also including tracks by Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, The Animals and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Various Artists CD “Andy Warhol – Amerykanski Mit”.

Two further compact discs were released in 2002 with Warhol art. “Andy Warhol – Uh, Yes, Uh, No” – a recording of Warhol quotes, and “Pop Art – Underground Sounds From the Warhol Era” another compilation of tracks by thirteen artists including (of course) Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Roky Erikson, Debbie Harry, John Cale and Jackson Browne. The cover was one of Warhol’s 1984 self portraits.

Another strange compact disc entitled “Warholes Or All Andy Would Enjoy (and Fear) / Warhol Memory Disorder” by Lengow & HEveRMEarS / Otomo Yoshide & Sachiko M with DJ Mao and Peter Skala used Warhol’s Cow wallpaper with added bullet holes as its cover image. I don’t have this CD and have no idea what tracks it contains.

In 1993 David Jones (no, not the David Bowie David Jones) and Bill Shute released a cassette of “traditional songs for all ages”, with simple cover art, entitled “Widdecombe Fair“. The album was re-released in 2003 with new cover art.

In 2004 another various artists CD by Cultura and entitled “Andy Warhol by Cultura” was released in Italy. This Digipak double CD included a booklet with several Warhol artworks, the use of which had been sanctioned by The Warhol Foundation.

Cultura compact disc.

A bootleg compact disc with early Velvet Underground tracks, recorded between January and April 1966 was released in Japan in 2005. The CD was called “The Velvet Underground at the Factory – Warhol Tapes”.

The Velvet Underground at the Factory – Warhol Tapes” CD.

The British music magazine Q released two CDs of covers of the music of John Lennon. These were cleverly titled “John Lennon Covered #1” and “John Lennon Covered #2“. Each 14-track CD included tracks by Oasis, Madonna, Paul Weller, Stereophonics and others.

John Lennon Covered #1 and #2.

Three compact discs featuring Warhol art were released in 2006. “The Mystery of Do-Re-Mi” a recording by the baritone Christopher Grabbitas accompanied on the lute by David Miller used a detail from another of Warhol’s “Details of Renaissance Paintings” series, This time using SandroBotticelli’s “The Birth of Venus“.

“The Mystery of Do-Re-Mi” with a detail of Warhol’s version of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus.

A second CD from 2006 was Brian Keene’s “Andy Warhol – A Documentary” which contained a specially composed soundtrack.

Several CDs have appeared in Germany on Warhol’s life and works. The first, a tranlation of Andy Warhol’s diaries was released under the title “Andy Warhol – Das Tagebuch” in 2006.

“Andy Warhol – Das Tagebuch”

While on the subject of Warhol’s life, Deutsche Grammophon released a series of CDs with programmes of biographies of famous people, one of whom was Andy Warhol. Stephana Sabin compiled the biography, which is in German.

Stephana Sabin’s biography of Andy Warhol.

The French music magazine Les Inrockuptibles released a compilation compact disc entitled “Le New York d’Andy Warhol” in 2007. The CD featured tracks by Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Television and others. The cover picture was David McCabe‘s photo of Andy with Edie Sedgwick taken in 1964 just after the release of Warhol’s film “The Empire State Building”.

Les Inrockuptibles CD “Le New York d’Andy Warhol”.

And in 2008 another German CD biography of Warhol appeared, this time written by Annette Spohn and called “Andy Warhol – Leben, Werk, Wirkung”.

Annette Spohn’s Warhol biography in German.

The Art Gallery of Ontario presented an exhibition of Warhol art entitled “Stars, Death and Disasters, 1962-1964″ in 2008. The exhibition was co-curated by film director David Cronenberg and the gallery released a CD of Cronenberg’s discussions of the exhibition. The CD was entitled “Cronenberg on Warhol” and featured two images of “Double Elvis on front and rear covers.

The Art Gallery of Ontario’s CD “Cronenberg on Warhol”.

In 2008 a re-issue of an old bootleg appeared on CD with a new cover. The Velvet Underground‘s “Psychedelic Sounds From the Gymnasium” is a concert recording from April 30th 1967. This album was originally released on vinyl in 2008 and this re-issue has a Warhol cover supplied by The Warhol Foundation.

“The Velvet Underground at the Gyymnasium” – a bootleg CD.

The final compact discs on my list are credited to MPHO (Mpho Skeef, a South African, now living in London). The are promotional various artist CD-rs and are released on the Wall of Sound/Parlophone label. Entitled “The Art of Pop featuring DJ Beware, Vols 1 and 2″, the cover art shows classic Pop Art images, not only by Warhol, but by Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and others.

2 thoughts on “Andy Warhol on Compact Disc – Art & Portraits”

Great post Richard! Though i have no intention to venture into the Warhol CD realm myself i still enjoy stuff like this a great deal! Personally i don’t care that much for the ones that basically just feature AW’s portrait or picture in one way or the other, but the cover for the Widdecombe Fair CD is really great! And your amazing find of the Concert of Concert CD is also an extremely nice addition!

Niklas, I’m sure purists would agree that CDs with Warhol’s art do not belong in any serious collection of his record cover art but for completists the CDs do offer the opportunity to see more of the diversity of Warhol’s art – and I would include them in a proper Catalogue Raisonné of his record cover art.
I had missed both the “Widdecombe Fair” and “Lennon Covered” CDs and am eternally grateful to Guy for pointing this out as I think they are three of the best Warhol CD covers. I also really like the “Concert of Concerts, Opus 2” CD – its obvious rarity is a special bonus!
I, too, am not overly enthusiastic about the CDs with Warhol self portraits, with the exception of the “Pop Art – Underground Sounds From the Warhol Era” CD. I haven’t bothered to collect the spoken word CDs with his portrait or the French CD with the photo of AW and Edie Sedgwick. I am sure there will be more CDs with Warhol’s art in the future, so I’ll have to keen my eyes open.